HOW TO START SOAP MAKING BUSINESS IN MALAWI; A Step by Step Guide

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Soap making business in Malawi is one of the good businesses ideas to start in Malawi. Too good is the fact that making soap at home does not demand technical skills. Unless you want to venture into large-scale business, soap making does not need to buy expensive materials. You can make soaps using materials found in the kitchen. This tutorial is a step by step guide on how to make soap at home.

Why soap making?

Making soap is easy task which is both interesting and profitable. Soap making is a business that requires less capital to start. Materials used to make soap can easily be found and they are affordable.

The chemicals used in making soap are caustic which means they can burn the skin. As such handle equipment and chemicals with care. Read safety rules before attempting to make your first soap. This tutorial provides details on how to make your own bar soap at home.

Soap making business is lucrative because there is always demand for the product. Regardless of the season, come rain come sunshine people will always want soaps for bathing, washing, and cleaning. As you know many people cannot do without soaps, even for a day.

Read: What Small Business to Start in Malawi

How is soap formed?

Soap is made by combining three major ingredients. The main components of a soap are distilled water, lye (base), and vegetable oils or animal fat. The type of oil determines the characteristics of the soap formed. Some oils make hard soap while others makes soft soaps but more lather. It is possible to make soaps with moderate hardness that forms more lather (foam) by proper combination of oils.

Safety rules

Wear safety gloves and goggles when making soap

Make soap outside the house. Soap reactions produces strong fumes

Lye is a caustic chemical

Use water to neutralize contaminated skin

Materials

Lye (Sodium hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide)

-NAOH makes hard bar soap

-KOH makes soft. Hardened by add common salt

Oils from vegetables or animal fat (Lard and Tallow)

Fragrance

Colors

Thermometer (resistant to high temperatures up to 120 )

Pots (steel metals, aluminum should not be used)

Stick blender

Vinegar

Distilled water (rain water) tap water

Molds

Cutter/knife

Packages

Stirring stick

Essential oil

Scale (kitchen scale)

Digital scale, gloves, and cooking oil

MAKING RECIPES

Being able to make soap recipe is one of the most important thing for soap makers. The ability to make own recipes gives the freedom to make soaps with customized qualities. If you cannot design a recipe then you can buy some formulas. In the next few words I explain how you can you can decide the amount of each ingredients to use. The main ingredients in soap recipes are lye, oils and water. Optionally you can add, perfumes, fragrances, and colors to make your bar soap more attractive. Basic mathematical skills are required to successfully make soap recipe.

Calculating amount of Lye

Lye is pure sodium hydroxide which is a base used in soap making. Multiply SAP values with the mass of lye (e.g. .136 x 24 = 3.6 ounces of lye). Every type of oil has a specific saponification (SAP) value.

Weighing (Lye, oils and fragrance)

In soap making all measurements must be correct. Inaccurate weighing may result into making the bars soaps to either be too hard or too soft. Weigh all ingredients in grams for accuracy. Do not measure the amounts in Volume even the volume of water.

Read: How to Register a Business in Malawi

Superfat your recipe

To superfat soap a recipe is to reduce the amount of lye to make the soap soft and less harsh. Many experienced soap makers superfat by (5 -10%), but 8% is common.

Calculate amount of water needed

As pointed out already measurements including the amount of water has to be in grams. In order to find the amount of water to be used in the recipes multiply the amount of lye in grams by 2.5. For instance if 6.5 grams lye will be used amount of water will to use will be equal to 2.5 x 6.5 (16.25g)

A sample Soap Bar

Soap making Procedures

Pour distilled water in a bowl

Put on rubber gloves and goggles

Slowly pour lye crystals into water (while stirring with a spoon or stick)

Allow lye water to cool to 100(solution become clear)

Mix the oils (solid oils be melted by using double boiler to melt them but do not burn)

Slowly pour mixed oils in the bowl with lye water.

Start stirring with stick or stick blender

Continue to stir in one direction until you reach TRACE

Add essentials oils, fragrance, and (Common salt to harden KOH soap)

Pour soap into molds (line it with paper/oil the surfaces)

Cover the mixture with wool

Leave it for 12 – 24 hours to solidify

Cut them into pieces

Let the soap air dry for 4 – 6 weeks

Read:Why is Malawi Poor

SAP VALUES AND SOAP CHARACTERISTICS

The table below shows saponification values for different types of oils and specific characteristics of bars which will be formed. To have a good soap you may need to mix more than one type of oil. However, for practice you can work with a single type of oil.

OIL

SAP

Soap Characteristics

Sunflower

.136

Lathering and conditioning

Soybean

.136

Lathering, conditioning

Olive

.135

Lathering, conditioning

Corn

.136

Lathering, conditioning

Sesame

.133

Lathering, conditioning

Coconut

.191

Hardening, lathering

Palm

.142

Hardening and lathering

Sample Soap Bars I made

After following the steps in this tutorial you will be able to start making quality bar soaps. Making perfect soap requires more practice and patience.

If you’ve any questions related to soap making business in Malawi let me know in the comment section or through email.

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About The Author

Chimwemwe Nuka is a professional Teacher, Entrepreneur, and passionate blogger. The purpose of this blog is to provide informative and educative tutorials on Education, Technology, and Business to the reader. And also to help people around the global to easily find some information about Malawi.

17 Comments

Ibrahim assan

am interested send the exact details

Chimwemwe Nuka

Hello Ibrahim

What details do you need?

Chifundo Namitepa

Very interested with this venture but I would like to know more about soap making. What is your email address so that I can contact you? Mine is cnamitepa@yahoo.com, feel free to inbox me.

Chimwemwe Nuka

Hello Chifundo

I am glad you found the content for this post interesting. You can contact me on chimwemwe@mawila.com.

Thank you

Fortune kwacha

Wow….that’s so interesting.infact I wanna know more. Let’s talk one to one if u dont mind please

Andrew

Hi Chimz am Andrew, I am in south Africa and I have been thinking of coming home and start something and this making soap biz is what comes in mind please can provide me with more information about this biz

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Mawila.com is an informative and educative blog about Malawi. The blog exist to to help people access some important information about Malawi. The topics shared on this blog include education, technology, business and health. On this site we share how-to articles on how to do different things that can help to improve daily lives of our readers.